Acetylene lamp



w. COCHRANE ACETYLENE LAMP arch 25 1924. 1,488,193

Filed Oct. 1 6, 1920 I INV M015 JBY v v a w ATTORNEYS Patented Mar. V25, 192

"" rru WILBUR A. COCHRANE, OF SEA CLIFF, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO BR-OCILGOCHRANE COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

ACETYLENE LAMP.

Application filed October 16, 1920. Serial No. 417,308.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILBUR A. COOHRANE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Sea Clifl, Long Island, in the county of Nassau and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Impromments in Acetylene Lamps, of which the following is a. specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

This invention relates to an acetylene gas lamp, such as is used in mines or on automobiles, bicycles and other vehicles, which lamp is ordinarily provided with a re flector screwed onto a burner tub-e projecting outwardly from the casing. In a lamp of this kind, it is customary to inter pose between the reflector and lamp casing a support which will serve to brace the reflector against the jars and blows it receives in the use of the lamp. Such a reflector support is presented in the Baldwin Letters Patent No. 1,083,427, and as therein shown, it is of substantially cylindrical form, being shaped at its rear to fit the lamp casing and at its front to contact with the reflector along a line. exending concentrically about the. burner tube. In the patent, the support is held in place by the reflector itself, which (being screwed tothe burner tube) serves to clamp the support against the casing, but in commercial lamps, the support is usually held in place by being soldered to the casing. The foregoing form and arrangement of the parts has not been found tobe entirely satisfactory in actual practise.

For instance, it frequently happens that the reflector (which is made of tin) becomes badly bent or distorted, and oftentimes broken, due to its frail and delicate nature and to the inadequate support which it receives. As a matter of fact, the reflector support itself (made of stamped sheet metal) not infrequently becomes damaged anddetached from the lamp casing. And, since the refiector is supported directlybythe burner tube, the latter is also subject to injury, often springing a leak due to the repeated shocks which it receives through the. reflector. These damaging effects come from the very rough handling of the lamp in use, the re fiector (which carries agas igniter) being subjected to repeated blows from the user in lighting, the gas, not to mention the knocks and jars it necessarily receives from other and unavoidable causes. Inaddit-ion to the foregoing objections, the parts are comparativel expensive to manufacture due to their particular form and the number of operations involved in building and assembling.

The present invention is intended to overcome the objections above noted and aims to provide a construction which, in the first place, is thoroughly capable ofwithstanding the very rough usage encountered in actual practice without damage to the parts, and which, in the second place, may be manufactured at materially less cost and assembled and disassembled with greater ease and facility, than-is possible in the case of the old construction. Th exact manner in which these results are attained will best be understood from the detailed description to follow.

Referring to the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a lamp equipped with the improved parts;

Fig. 2 is a similar view, although partly in section, showing said parts in unassembled condition;

Fig. 3 is a front face view of the improved reflector; and

Fig. 4 is a rear perspective view of said reflector.

The invention is herein shown as applied to a miners acetylene lamp which comprises generally, the casing A, the burner tube B, the burner tip or burner proper C, the pro tective cap D. and the reflector E. The particular form and arrangen'ient of the burner tip and protective cap are as set forth in the pending application of J. M. Brock, Ser. No. 391,107, although they may be of any other suitable construction. parts of thelamp may also be of any suitable construction, or such as illustrated in the Brock Patent No. 1,193,985. The present invention is directed primarily to a novel form and arrangement of the reflector E and the related parts, as will now be de scribed in detail.

As shown, the reflector E is of the customary concave-convex form and has a central opening E through which the burner tube B extends when the reflector is applied to the lamp. On its rear face, the reflector is formed with an integral reenforcing member fitted to and seated against the lamp casing so as to afford a firm and rigid support for the reflector in the use of the The interior lamp. In the embodiment illustrated, such reenforcing member is of skeleton form and comprises an annular web E surrounding the central opening E and a series of ribs E radiating from the web at ninety degrees apart and extending to the outer edge of the reflector. It will be noted that the an nular web and the two horizontally dis posed ribs are shaped to lit the spherical undercut portion of the lamp casing, whereas the two vertically disposed ribs are shaped to fit the upright or cylindrical portions of the casing. The reenforeing elements thus serve, on the one hand, to strengthen and stiii'en the reflector throughout and, on the other hand, to support the reflector firmly and solidly in place and to transfer any shocks and strains imposed thereon directly to the lamp casing. in this connection, it may be noted that'the reenforcing elements coniointly present a rather extended hearing seat or socket contacting with the lamp casing over a corresponding area and extending from the center of the reflector well out toward its extreme edge, thus providing for a good distribution of the loads applied to the reflector. t will be understood thatthe exact shape and form of the reenforcing elements may be I altered in various ways. Thus, instead of having a surface contact with the lamp casing, they might be made to contact therewith at 'JOllllZS only. Similarly, while the reenforcing member as herein shown comprises four distinct radial ribs, a greater or less number of such ribs may be employed as desired. And, of course, if the casing were of different shape say cylindrical, the configuration of the reenforcing elements would be changed to correspond.

ln the prior construction before men tioned, the reflector is held detachably in place by means of a screw thread connection with the burner tube, which connection necessarily involves a rotary turning movement of the reflector as it is applied to or removed from the tube. This mode of at tachment is unsuitable in the present an rangement and besides is objectionable for other reasons. For example, in the old construction, the reflector is provided with a hub portion in which the screw threads are out, and this hub portion is rigidly fastened to the reflector by special caps and flanges, all of which adds'to the expense and difliculty of manufacture. This old practice is entirely eliminated in the pres ent arrangement, wherein the reflector is passed freely over the burnertube (its central opening; E being made plain and sufficiently large for that purpose) and is held in place by means of a separate winged nut F,'which is screwed to the outer end of the burner tube and serves to clamp the reflector tightly to its seat against the lamp casing.

According to this construction, the reflector may be slipped on or off the tube without any turning movement whatever, V which feature not only facilitates the assemblage and disassemblage of the parts, but also enables them to be made of simpler construction and at materially less cost than heretofore. it hardly needs to be stated that in assembling the parts, the reflector E is first slipped over the burner tube B and then the nut F screwed thereon to hold the reflector in place, after which the burner tip G is inserted in the end of the tube (see Fig. 2). As shown clearly in Figs. and 3, the reflector is formed in its front face with an annular recess or depression li to receive the clamping nut This recess permits the use of a shorter burner tube than would otherwise be possible and also allows the burner tip to be set back within the reflector to the desired extent.-

Heretofore, and due to their screw thread connection as above referred to, the reflector has been supported directly by the burner-tube, so that the latter has had to withstand the jars and knocks to which the former is subjected. ln the present in stance, and to relieve the burner tube of such jars and knocks, the reflector is made to interlock with the lam casing so as to be supported thereby free of the burner tube. Such interlockingofthe parts is partly provided for by the fitting of the reflector reenforcing member to the lamp casing, but as a further provision to this end, the two vertical reenforcing ribs E are formed in their rear edges with notches or recesses 6 arranged to'engage over the annular ribs or flanges A struck up from the lamp casing. It can be seen, therefore, that when the reflector is clamped in place by the nut l it is held by its interlocking engagement with the casingagainst displacement in any direction except straight for wardly. As thrusts seldom come in that direction alone, it is fair to say that the burner tube in practice is r." .ved of substantially all shocks and strains imposed upon the reflector. 1

For purposes of economy and to improre the structure in general, thereflector and its reenforcing member are made of cast metal, prefeably alun'iinum, These'parts, therefore, may be made in completed form by a simple casting operation, so that theexpense of' manufacture and assemblage is reduced to a minimum. In addition, a' reflector as thus made is both light and strong and far superior to the frail tin reflector of theprior art. To enable the {Lll'lll'lllllllll member to serve as a reflector, its front face is polished suthciently to provide the required reflecting surface.

Some of the advantages of the improved arrangement have already been mentioned,

lt l) and others will be apparent to those skilled in the art. However, it is particularly noted that all of the parts are extremely simple and can be made at small cost and fitted together without the slightest difficulty or delay and without involving any radical alteration in the existing parts, which may therefore be manufactured' in the usual way. In addition, the parts are strong, durable and compact and well adapted to endure the rough treatment which they are bound to receive in practice.

In its broader aspects, the invention is not limited to the precise construction shown and described, as many changes may be made in the details thereof without departing from its spirit or sacrificing its chief advantages. Generally speaking, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to any specific form or arrangement except in so far as such limitations are specified Y in the claims. 7

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. In an acetylene lamp, the combination of a casing, a burner disposed exteriorly thereof, and a detachable reflector sustained behind the burner and formed on its rear face with a reenforcing member shaped to lit and seat against the casing at a plurality of points in both a circumferential and raof a casing, a burner disposed exteriorly thereof, and a detachable reflector sustained behind the burner and formed on its rear face with integral reenforcing ribs extend ing to the outer edge of the reflector and fitted to and seated against the casing.

a. In an acetylene lamp, the combination of a casing, a burner tube projecting therefrom, a detachable reflector having a central opening through which the burner tube extends and formed on its rear face with an integral reenforcing web extending around the central opening and curved to fit and seat against the casing, and means for clamping the reflector and its reenforcing web up against said casing.

5. In an acetylene lamp, the combination of a casing, a burner tube projecting therefrom, a reflector having a central opening through which the burner tube extends and formed on its rear face with an integral reenforcing web extending around the cental opening and with integral reenforcing ribs radiating from the web, the said web and ribs being fitted to and seated against the casing so as to afford a firm and rigid support for the reflector, and means for holding the reflector detachably in place.

6. In an acetylene lamp, the combination of a casing, a burner tube projecting therefrom, a reflector detachably applied over the burner tube and supported free of the same by an interlocking engagement with the casing, and a clamping nut screwed to the burner tube; and serving to hold the reflector and casing in such interlocking engagement.

7. In an acetylene lamp, the combination of a casing, a burner tube projecting therefrom, a reflector freely applied over the burner tube and formed on its rear face with an integral reenforcing member seated against the casing and interlocked therewith, and means for holding the reflector detachably in place.

8. In an acetylene lamp, the combination of a casing, a burner tube projecting therefrom, a burner tip fitted into said tube and provided with a protective cap applied directly thereto, a reflector having a plain central opening to pass freely over the tube, and a nut separate and distinct from the burner tip or cap and screwed to the burnei tube for holding the reflector detachably in place.

In testimony whereof, I have aliixed my signature hereto.

IVILBUR A. COCHRANE. 

